


You're My Brother

by AcesOfSpade



Series: Avengers Academy Scarlet Witch AU [8]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), X-Men - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy Kaplan is a good bro, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Multi, Tommy Shepherd needs a hug, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 19:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12564348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcesOfSpade/pseuds/AcesOfSpade
Summary: As times goes by with all kinds of planning for huge things, Tommy's been secluding himself from his family, and the rest of the Academy, for some reason. Billy won't stand for this, and tries to get to the bottom of this.





	You're My Brother

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, this one isn't Wanda-centric! It's a miracle! Let me be real for a moment: I didn't really know where I was going with this one, then it became... this. I hope you like it?

As the weeks went by and Wanda really began to show, Fury had her stuck in her classroom instead of doing anything of importance to the ongoing research of the time fog. It was frustrating, but she knew it was the best option. Whenever she was needed in the research, it was because they needed her power, and a lot of it. That level of strain on her powers would negatively affect her unborn child, and she didn’t want that. As annoying as classroom duty was, she kept at it for the sake of her child.

 

Much like with the twins, Wanda had declined the offer of learning her baby’s sex, as she liked the surprise of it. Her and Vision had a three-page list of names planned for the twins, for either sex, and one had been started for the new baby as well.

 

The top of the list for a boy was ‘Pietro Erik’, which Wanda had suggested one night after remebering that her brother would never get to meet her children. The twins and Viv would’ve loved her brother, and she was certain the new baby would too, so with a bittersweet smile she’d suggested naming the baby after her brother if it were a boy. ‘Erik’ had been pitched as a middle name as well, as a way to show her father that Wanda was on the way to forgiving him for what had transpired in Sokovia all those years ago. There was still a tiny shred of resentment, but the longer Erik was around, the more Wanda forgave him, after having seen how hard it had affected him, and how it still was.

 

As for a girl, Wanda had suggested one name, and one name only: Anya Corrina. She wouldn’t tell Vision why that name was so important to her, and why she didn’t have any other names for a girl. He stopped trying to get an answer from her after a few weeks of trying, because she was very stubborn in general, but when she was pregnant, it was worse. Far worse.

 

There were only two other people at the Academy who understood Wanda’s insistence on the use of that name, and they were her parents. The first time Wanda told Magda she wanted to name her daughter that, Magda had literally broke down crying and hugged Wanda far too tightly. Erik looked like he wanted to cry, but settled for a meaningful glance and a small, but sad, smile. This was their little secret, their own little memorial to someone they’d loved and lost long before the bombing that separated them as a family.

 

In the meantime, Billy found himself overwhelmed with planning of another kind. Granted, planning a wedding was a lot less stressful than planning for an entire person, but still. He and Teddy were firm on the fact that they were going to have a simple ceremony with their family members and a few friends (namely the other Young Avengers). There was less of a hassle in planning for too many people, but it also made it feel more real and important to the couple that it only be the people they cared about. They’d heard stories of other superheroes’ weddings being big public events, with gate-crashers of the civillian and supervillain varieties. By keeping their wedding a quiet, private affair, they hoped to minimize the chances of it being crashed. The numerous attempts that Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman made to get married were all over the news when it happened, and Billy was entirely not okay with that being a possibility.

 

Viv, on the other hand, was learning what it meant to be in a romantic relationship in small steps. There were certain aspects that intimidated her, such as public displays of affection and sexual intimacy. Peggy completley understood, not pressuring her into doing things she didn’t want to yet. One thing Viv was comfortable with though was hand-holding and hugging. More often than not, if the two were anywhere near each other, they were either holding hands or Viv was pretty much attached to Peggy’s side with an arm around her waist. Tommy found it equal parts hilarious and adorable, though he never voiced as much to Viv. He didn’t want to embarrass her by pointing it out.

 

As for Tommy, he had thrown himself into training since the new year began. He’d chickened out of talking to Elsa, instead dashing off to the park and climbing a tree to watch the fireworks alone. He didn’t understand why he was so scared to tell her, but he just couldn’t. And watching his family around him in happy relationships wasn’t doing him any good, so training it was. There were no other speedsters at the Academy though, so much of his training consisted of him running infinite laps around the stadium until he needed food or water, or had to go to class. His friends and family had grown concerned for him, as he rarely spent time with people unless he was in class. He’d become a recluse, in a way, and his parents especially wanted to know what was bothering their son. He brushed off any attempts at conversation about his seclusion, because he really didn’t understand the reason why himself. He just knew he needed a break from being around people lately, so he took as many as he could.

 

Billy in particular was heavily concerned for his twin. Tommy wasn’t the kind of person to turn down an invitation to be with people, let alone willingly secluding himself from others. He was a social butterfly at heart, so his absence was worrying. He’d tried to talk to Tommy at night, as they shared a dorm, but Tommy kept brushing him off and pretending to be asleep until Billy gave up and went to sleep. That didn’t stop him from trying though. He just wanted to know why his brother had changed so much in such little time.

 

It took Billy almost two weeks to finally get Tommy to sit and talk to him. It had required a lot of pushing and prodding, as well as magic, to get Tommy to stay in their dorm, but it worked. Tommy was sitting cross-legged on his bed with a pillow in his lap, while Billy sat on the edge of his across the room.

 

“Tommy...” Billy muttered sadly. “What’s wrong, man? You’re not being yourself lately.”

 

Tommy sighed, looking down at the pillow. “I don’t know,” he admitted softly, not looking up at his brother. “I just feel so… left out, like I’m doomed to be the one nobody wants. Mary and Frank kept sending me to juvie, then you left for here without me, now you’re getting married, and Mama and Papa are freaking out over the new baby, and I don’t have anyone to talk to anymore because you’re all busy.”

 

“Oh Tommy,” Billy sighed, shaking his head. “You know you can talk to me. I can tell Teddy to shove off so we can talk. I always have time for my brother, you should know this. And Mama and Papa are still here for us too, and Viv. They still love us. The new baby may be keeping them busy, but I _know_ they’d take time for you. There is nothing more important right now to any of us than each other as a family, as much as we seem to act like it isn’t. You don’t ever need to think we don’t want you, Tommy. We’ll always want you, as much of a punk as you are,” he said firmly, though the last bit was said with a faint smile. “No one is going to send you anywhere you don’t want to go, unless you piss of Satana. Then you’ll probably end up in Hell,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

 

Tommy looked up from the pillow, a melancholy smile on his face. “I’ll try not to,” he chuckled softly. “I want to be there for all of you, in some way. It just seemed like you didn’t need my help.”

 

“Dude, no,” Billy shook his head. “I’ve been trying to find you so you _can_ help,” he told him. “I need my best man, buddy. Can’t do this without you.”

 

At that, Tommy’s eyes widened slightly, a faint blush creeping up his neck. “You… you want me to be your best man?” he asked in awe.

 

“There’s no one else I’d want up there with me than my idiot brother,” Billy nodded. “You’re a punk, but you’re my best friend, Tommy. Why would you think I’d want someone else?”

 

Tommy looked back down at the pillow, trying to hide the tears forming in his eyes from Billy. He knew Billy loved him, but to hear him say outright that Tommy was that important to him really hit him hard. He had a family, he had a best friend that was also his brother, he was loved. It was all so hard to process, even now, because of his childhood with Frank and Mary. He was still learning to understand that his parents actually cared about him, and weren’t just going to ship him off to some new juvie facility because they couldn’t ‘handle his impulsivity and destructive tendencies’. He’d been an only child back then too, so the idea of having siblings was so fresh and new to him that he sometimes felt like a little kid trying to get used to a new baby in the family. Well, that was at least half true in his current situation. Mama was due in a few months, so Tommy was going to actually experience being an older brother to a baby. Billy had been through it twice with the other Kaplan boys, but Tommy, at 20 years old, was going in blind.

 

Billy saw just how shaken Tommy was so he got up off his bed, moving to sit next to him and pull him into a hug. “Tommy, we love you,” he muttered into his brother’s hair. “Please don’t ever think otherwise, okay?”

 

Tommy nodded slowly, leaning into his brother’s hug. “Thank you,” he mumbled, sniffling softly. He stayed quiet after that, just letting Billy hug him tightly.

 

“C’mon, Tommy, let’s go see Oma,” Billy suggested, pulling out of the hug and squeezing Tommy’s shoulder. “I think she made cookies or something with Viv and Peggy.”

 

Tommy seemed to perk up at that, if only a little. “Cookies?” he asked hopefully, which got him up and off the bed in seconds.

 

Billy grinned at his change in mood, shaking his head as he got up to head to Oma’s room. She’d fought Fury to let her have an oven so she could bake stuff for the students, which was a great idea in the long run. It seemed a lot of the students wanted some nice, homemade cookies or bread sometimes when they felt homesick. Magda gladly provided whatever they needed, and damn was she good at it.

 

The twins made it to Oma’s room in no time, Tommy eagerly knocking on her door by the time they arrived. It seemed like he was feeling a lot better, which Billy was happy about. Tommy deserved to be happy, just like anyone else. Billy couldn’t stand the idea that he thought he wasn’t wanted, because he absolutely was.

 

“Ah, William! Thomas!” Magda grinned when she opened the door, her greying copper hair pulled away from her face in a ponytail. “I bet you heard there were cookies?” she teased, ushering the twins into the room. It smelled like shortbread cookies and apple cider, which meant Oma had been at this for a while. Apple cider was her ‘energy drink’ when she was baking, in her own words.

 

“Of course we did, Oma,” Billy nodded, smiling widely. “What kind of grandsons would we be if we didn’t come steal your freshly baked cookies?” he joked.

 

“The wrong kind,” Magda chuckled, gesturing for the boys to come into the kitchen area. Viv and Peggy were sitting at the table, a plate of cookies between them. Viv looked up when she heard her brothers come in, smiling warmly in greeting.

 

“Hello,” Viv said. “Billy got my message about the cookies?” she guessed. It was a slow process, but Viv was learning to call the twins Billy and Tommy instead of William and Thomas. Those names were reserved for their parents and grandparents.

 

“I did, yeah,” Billy nodded, stealing a chair beside Viv and grabbing a cookie.

 

Tommy chuckled, finding a chair near Peggy and grabbing his own cookie. Oma’s shortbread cookies were some of her best cookies, even before she put on her homemade frosting. That was probably the next step after the cookies cooled down, but Billy and Tommy were impatient when it came to cookies. They didn’t care if they were frosted or not, as long as they were baked.

 

Magda shook her head fondly at the twins, smiling slightly as she went to grab the frosting from the fridge.

 

The five of them spent the next hour or so frosting cookies, eating a fair few of them along the way. By the time they were all done, Tommy felt a lot better than he did before arriving. He hadn’t spent much time with his family lately, so he’d forgotten just how uplifting and welcoming it was. By the time he left, Tommy had a freezer bag of cookies and a grin on his face.


End file.
